Was that really necessary? You /flex and /guffaw and have 10+ levels on me.

Droonda and Oddity completed the quest to kill some Nagas off in the waters of Desolace. We decided to head straight to the coast at that point and run to Ghostwalker Post to turn in some fish. (Fish!)

As we ran eastwards to the post we managed to encounter every dinosaur, vulture, and dust devil in the way. My “contested zone” radar was in full operation and in every battle I was scanning 360 to be on the look out for the bad guys. We were lucky. Nobody was around.

We ran across the road and saw the tents of the Post appearing in the near distance. I was ahead of Droonda and we were making decent time.

Then a horse road past. Human mounted on top of it, glowing blades on his back and at his side. Rogue. Level ??. “Just keep riding” I thought. “Just keep riding.” We aren’t worth anything to him. Ahead of us he dismounts and disappears. “Damn.” So I tell Droonda “Just keep running, the entrance is right ahead.” Then I’m sapped. Stunned in my tracks, reeling about like a drunk man, unable to do anything. Then he sets out for Droonda. Taking me out of the picture with a sap, level 37, the Rogue takes off after Droonda, level 32. Real nice.

A Night Elf Rogue appears when he ambushes me and I’m quickly cut down. Droonda reaches the safety of the Post and has escaped. The Human Rogue apparently expended his sprint to reach me stealthed to sap me before he set out to murder Droonda. Droonda never even changed to Ghostwolf form but escaped nonetheless. The Human Rogue returns and /flexes at me. “Ooh, so strong.” Then he /guffaws. They ride on. Really? Good job guys. Gank me and move on. I don’t need to know you’re 13 and your friends are beating you up in the bathroom at school so you think you’re all that all of a sudden because you can murder a pair of grays. Newsflash: You aren’t. Kill me, if you feel the need, and move on. What’s the /flex and /guffaw going to get you? Is that floating your boat? Ain’t that sad? (Hint: It is.)

I got better and then got to the Post and we took on the mission to get some rep with the Centaurs. We choose to help the Gelkis against the Magram and set out to the Magram village. We’ve also got to kill a Khan of the Kolkar and attend to that mission first. Easy enough. We quickly track down the Khan in his tent (sneaky Khan has almost as many palaces as Saddam) and kill him. We then move back to the Magram village and start killing them. It’s nice because they don’t find us enemies yet. So we approach them one by one and dispatch them just as quick. We keep our eyes open for any Alliance but it’s good so far.

We kill Magram and I find a few metal veins to mine. We discover a ravine in which are some Felhunters wandering about. I’d never found these before! Were these new to the world? Part of some larger epic? Or had they always been here and I missed them in my haste to be gone from this desolate corner of the world?

As we moved through the camp, become ever more hated by the Magram and more liked by the Gelkis we left off at one kill up on a small hillock. There below was a Gnome Warrior. Shiny Whirlwind Axe on his back. Level 33. Now he stopped and paused. When I crested the hill I think he reconsidered anything and moved away at something of a high rate of speed. He vanished into the distance. We two could have taken him out. Would he have deserved a /flex and a /guffaw like I’d gotten? No, not really. We’re two, he’s one. We didn’t even follow him. I kept my eyes open afterwards because sneaky snake Alliance are fond of interrupting fights and getting the killing move in after a mob has done all the prep work. We were two, he was one. Had we attacked he’d have sent the /yell out that he’d just been “Ganked by two Horde!” and that just leads to more hassle than his one HK was worth. He moved on, we continued on, and got to Friendly with the Gelkis.

We journeyed back to the coast and the Gelkis Village and spoke with their seer. She gave us a new quest to go collect some bags of meat from the Magram Village. But it was late and we decided not to start a new quest. But I was half a bar from level 38 so I convinced Droonda to stay a bit longer and help me get the last of the xp I needed. We moved to the entrance of the Maradaun Ravine. There we fought level 38 Centaurs and Scorpids.

I was nearly to level 38 when there came a scattershot from off the screen at me and Droonda! Turning to look I find a Dwarf Hunter, level ??. (But, of course.) This appeared to have concussed me so I walked up to him and began swinging. At the same time I asked Droonda to turn into Ghostwolf and make her way back to the safety of Shadowprey Village. As I die I see I have managed to get a Hamstring on the Dwarf. He hobbles back the way he came in, seemingly in pursuit of Droonda, but she was long gone. Having reached level 33 while fighting the Magram she returned to the Undercity to get the quest from Varamthes to go visit the Scarlet Monastery and dispatch the psychos there ensconced.

I returned to my body and moved down to Shadowprey and hunted a few more lobsters along the coast until I’d finally dinged 38.

You know, at level 40, when I finally get my mount, this all changes. I won’t be caught by some Rogue riding past and dismounting and stealth sprinting back to me. I’ll have some respite from this.

But all this ganking by smart-alecky ??’s really put the ache in me to get Darkhoof and go to Redridge and while swimming in the waters of lake with my hydrocane staff one-shot frostshock Alliance noobs as they tried to hunt murlocs. But then I’m not wired like that. I took a pass on that thought, you can too!, and got onto my Night Elf Warrior character over on Kirin Tor and did a few calm quests outside of Darnassus. Screeching harpies is easier on the nerves.